The Shutdown Shows that Washington Is Working

5 Oct 2013

In today’s Financial Times of London, former Speaker Newt Gingrich analyzes the current epic battle in Washington and concludes that history is against the “whiners, complainers, and the hysteria mongers.”

There has been a great deal of hyperbole and hysteria about the government shutdown. The pressure on Republicans in the House of Representatives to surrender is enormous and some of it comes from members of their own party. The viciousness of the Democrats’ language – “people with a bomb strapped to their chest”, etc – has been extraordinary.

The bulk of the news media has been demanding an instant reopening of the government, an inherently pro-President Barack Obama, anti-Republican position. All of this reflects ignorance of recent, early American and English history. The facts are against the whiners, complainers and hysteria-mongers.

First, recent experience shows how common it is for government to shut down due to conflict between the legislative and executive branches – and sometimes even due to conflicts between the House and the Senate. This usually happens not because either side is “not doing their job” but because elected representatives legitimately disagree about serious matters.